The bombardment had grown heavy and continuous all along the line. Colonel Gordon presently started back to the garden, but was prevented by the sentry on the path outside, who shook his head scowlingly, with upraised rifle. Surprised at this sudden change of front, Colonel Gordon went back to his room and looked out of the main window toward the west. The sky was filled with darting airplanes, and bursting shrapnel formed countless dark spots among the white clouds beyond the town. As he looked, the scream of a shell drowned for a moment every other sound. The next instant, with a terrific explosion, a jet of earth and stone rose into the air not five hundred yards distant, leaving a gaping hole in the street leading westward from the hospital.
Colonel Gordon turned to the door of the room, and catching sight of Miss Pearse, motioned quickly to her. The big ward had suddenly taken on a look of excitement and confusion. A German doctor was loudly issuing orders right and left. Miss Pearse ran to Colonel Gordon’s side, her face reflecting the emotions that filled her heart almost to bursting at that moment. Colonel Gordon gave her no time to speak before he asked sharply:
“Where is Lucy? Why isn’t she here?”
Miss Pearse gave a quick sigh, as though she had nearly reached the limit of endurance. She drew Colonel Gordon back into the room, and said with what calmness she could muster:
“I will have to tell you, Colonel, and I can’t take long to do it. I hope and believe that Lucy is safely inside the Allies’ lines.”
“Where? What?” gasped Colonel Gordon, stupefied.
Miss Pearse took Lucy’s note from her apron pocket and put it in his hands. “That will tell you all I know,” she said.
With trembling fingers Colonel Gordon held the slip of paper to the light and read the following, in a hurried, blotted likeness of Lucy’s writing:
“Dear Miss Pearse: I am going to try to cross the German lines to-night, to take Captain Beattie’s plan to the Allies. I cannot stay here and see Father sent to Germany. I know a way—by the château hill—where perhaps I can get through. If I succeed I will beg the American commander to attack at once. Pray that he can. I wrote Elizabeth not to let Father know sooner than can be helped. You, too, please, don’t tell him before to-morrow. Lucy.”
Colonel Gordon could not find breath to speak. As he stood staring at Miss Pearse in horror and amazement, the young nurse cried in an agony of longing: